JANUARY 24, 2015

Bird of Paradiso
Photograph by Stefano Unterthiner, National Geographic

Gran Paradiso National Park is the oldest in Italy. Its namesake, the Gran Paradiso massif, rises 13,324 feet. Here, with the massif looming beyond a cloud bank, a yellow-billed Alpine chough swoops and soars on thermals and updrafts. The park is home to some hundred species of birds.